Big Piph at Stickyz

THE CALM: Big Piph will be at Stickyz Saturday at 10 p.m. with his band Tomorrow Maybe, $10.

HONK AND TONK: The Salty Dogs will play at South on Main Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., free.

THURSDAY 3/20

SWEET CHARITY

7:30 p.m. Reynolds Performance Hall, Conway. $30-$40.

"Sweet Charity," written by Pulitzer-winner Neil Simon and choreographed by idiosyncratic Broadway legend Bob Fosse (with characteristic weird sensuality), is a loose adaptation of the great 1957 Federico Fellini film "Nights of Cabiria," about a prostitute with uncommonly bad luck in romance. The musical was nominated for nine Tony Awards when it premiered in 1966, and was later adapted into a film (the first directed by Fosse) starring Shirley MacLaine. Here the protagonist is a Times Square dancer-for-hire who spends the play looking for love with a painfully oblivious optimism. The production, presented here for one night only, features music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Dorothy Fields, a pair who also collaborated on 1973's "Seesaw." It was right before the opening night performance of the 1987 revival of "Sweet Charity" that Fosse collapsed and died on the sidewalk outside the theater in Washington, D.C.

FRIDAY 3/21

RICH HOMIE QUAN

9 p.m. Clear Channel Metroplex. $20-$50.

Rich Homie Quan's "Type of Way" was one of a semi-elite group of songs that became inevitable on rap radio last year, just an absolute, no-questions-asked standby that you could feel confidant would pop up at least once every hour (more often than that if you happened to be in Atlanta). Repetitive and cocky and pitched somewhere in the murky zone between rapping and Auto-Tune singing, the song is clearly indebted to the world that Atlanta rapper Future created, with that clipped, helicopter "Karate Chop" flow and the daydream-y synth gurgles that have become like wallpaper in the A. It's a great song, and odds are Quan has another hit in him — his last tape "I Promise I Will Never Stop Going In," was quietly pretty good, with weird moments like "Man of the Year," which just sounds lonely.

FRIDAY 3/21

PATRICK SWEANY

10 p.m. White Water Tavern. $7.

Patrick Sweany is from Ohio and is often associated with fellow Ohioans The Black Keys, whose frontman Dan Auerbach produced a couple of his records, including 2007's "Every Hour Is a Dollar Gone." That album featured the laid-back and instantly recognizable blue-rock anthems "Hotel Women" and "Them Shoes," the latter of which is still Sweany's best known song and maybe for good reason — it just sounds like a "natural" hit, all straightforward '70s rock swagger with an iconic melody and a cool, trebly David Crosby-ish guitar solo. Since then, Sweany's gone deeper into his blues roots, and his latest record, "Close to the Floor," is a case in point. For an intro, just check out the video for "Working for You," in which he plays a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman.

SATURDAY 3/22

BIG PIPH

10 p.m. Stickyz. $10.

Not long ago I went to see Big Piph at South on Main, not the most likely hip-hop venue in town. As he rapped, patrons ate grilled quail and rabbit boudin and drank cocktails with mezcal and honeysuckle vodka. He didn't seem fazed by this, but then why would he? The rapper more formally known as Epiphany has made a habit of performing in unlikely venues all over the world — recently doing shows (and lecturing) in Mauritius, Seychelles and The Gambia. He's back in the Rock at the moment, and has a new tape out this week called "The Calm" that sounds anything but. It's a diverse and mature and sometimes startling collection, with spoken word interludes alongside 808 slaps and live band workouts. "It's kind of wild that my smirk turned to a smile," he says on the single "Balance (Let 'Em Know)," which loops a spooky operatic screech over slow-ride country rap vibes. Piph will celebrate the release at Stickyz with his band Tomorrow Maybe.

SATURDAY 3/22

KEVIN KERBY

9 p.m. White Water Tavern.

Pulaski County's (unofficial) poet laureate Kevin Kerby has been playing music with Brent Best for decades now — since back before Kerby made his name in seminal local groups like Ho-Hum and Mulehead. Best, the former front man for Denton, Texas, alt-rock group Slobberbone, who Stephen King once said wrote one of the three greatest rock and roll songs ever, has since started The Drams and toured solo. The two will share a bill at White Water Saturday night with Denton-based garage rock duo RTB2, who shoot music videos in Super 8mm and once released an 8-track tape, if that gives you some idea of where they're coming from. Last time I saw Kerby play, he opened the floor up to audience requests, but by theme rather than song title — so that's something to think about in advance.

SATURDAY 3/22

PEDAL-PALOOZA

10 a.m.-4 p.m. First Security Amphitheater. Free.

The River Market is partnering with Recycle Bikes for Kids and Chainwheel Bike Shop this Saturday for Pedal-Palooza, Arkansas's biggest bike swap meet. Vendors sign up and set up tables to sell or trade all manner of bike-related things, from bike parts and gear both obscure and necessary to old-school, collectible BMX stickers, not to mention actual bikes. Loblolly Creamery will be in the building, and local biking organizations will be on hand to sign up new members or answer questions. Also, anyone with an old, out-of-commission or just unused bike can donate it to Recycle Bikes for Kids, a local organization that rebuilds and repairs bikes and gives them to kids who need them more than you do.

WEDNESDAY 3/26

THE SALTY DOGS

7:30 p.m. South on Main. Free.

On March 25, Little Rock favorites The Salty Dogs, self-proclaimed "quartet of Honk and Tonk," will release their new six-song EP, "Too Old To Fight." The group, which was named "Best Original Band in Arkansas" by this paper, has since shared stages with Hank Williams Jr. and Kinky Friedman, and the new release finds it at its best. It's a strong, soulful group of vintage country songs underpinned by Brad Williams' heartfelt drawl. There's a great, tightly wound cover of Merle Travis's "Nine Pound Hammer," some hyperactive fiddle playing and classic lines like "Sometimes I want to kiss you and sometimes I want to kill you." On Wednesday night they'll celebrate the release with a free show as part of South on Main's Local Live series. If you miss them Wednesday, they'll also be at White Water Tavern the following Friday night with the Buffalo City Ramblers.